Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World by Dana Mills (review)

ABSTRACT

According to Mills, there are very few books on "conceptual or theoretical studies of dance and activism” (3), but most importantly, any that do exist were written before the major events and upheavals of the current moment. Mills presents it as a practical problem that helps us to understand, among other things, why so many governments worldwide have shifted toward authoritarianism in recent decades. Because the author's main argument is that dance itself is an activist practice, Mills clarifies that the underlying problematic of the book is "how do people work to overcome dislocation from themselves, their societies, and their work by telling their life stories through dance?” (9). [...]the book could be used in full as a required reading for courses centered on dance as activism or dance for social change.